In one method of making slider-operated reclosable bags, a single bag is made per film index. For example, by drawing five inches of film per index from a fastener-carrying web of film, each unit operation performs a task at locations spaced at five inch increments and a five inch wide bag can be made. In this method, a single preseal forming station, notch forming station, slider inserter station, and end termination forming station are located at five inch increments.
One way to increase the number of bags which can be produced per index is to use a double index and dual unit operations. In other words, rather than drawing five inches of film per index from the fastener-carrying web to make a five inch wide bag, ten inches of film are drawn per index from the fastener-carrying web. By using dual unit operations which are spaced at five inch increments and a double index draw, two five inch wide bags can be made per index rather than a single five inch wide bag per index.
A problem in using a double index draw and dual unit operations to make slider-operated reclosable bags involves interference from the trailing slider. In a typical operation, a guiding mechanism is used to guide the track and insert the slider onto the track as it indexes forward. Where a dual slider inserter step is used in conjunction with a double index, two sliders are inserted onto the track. However, as the film indexes forward, the trailing slider interferes with the guiding mechanism, making this method impracticable.
Hence, there exists a need for methods of applying sliders to fasteners for reclosable bags and methods of making slider-operated reclosable bags using a double index draw and dual unit operations that overcome the problems associated with interference from the trailing slider.